Union Plan for Revising ESEA Differs From Obama Blueprint

The NEA offers alternative ideas for testing students and improving schools.

The National Education Association has put forward its most detailed recommendations Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader to date for the overhaul of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.

“We think there is a real opportunity for policymakers to change the framework of what’s in the statute,” said Donna Harris- Aikens, the director of education policy and practice for the 3.2 million-member union. “I don’t think there was an appetite for doing that during the last time around. It probably doesn’t mean every single word [in ESEA] is going to change, but we’re using this as a way to start a discussion.”

The union’s close engagement in the law stands in contrast to the rewrite that resulted in the current version of the ESEA, the No Child Left Behind Act, which became law in 2002. Teachers’ unions were widely considered to have been left out of that reauthorization. ( "Unions' Positions Unheeded On ESEA," ...

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